Tag: Ace

Jimmy Dodds, one of the Royal Air Force’s most successful fighter pilots, has passed away aged 92. Flying outclassed Hurricane fighters in North Africa in 1941 and 1942, he shot down many Italian and German fighters. Read his obituary on The Telegraph.

The commandant Jean Sauvage, who fought with the famous Normandie-Niémen fighter group on the Eastern Front, recently passed away aged 97. Flying Morane-Saulnier MS. 406 fighters with GC III/3 during the Battle of France, he was credited with three shared aerial victories. He was sent to North Africa after the armistice and joined the Allied …

Major James Goodson, one of the top aces of the US 4th Fighter Group in World War II, passed away on May 1, aged 93. After the war, Major Goodson went on to a successful post-war business career. Goodson joined the war in 1939, at the age of 18, when he went to the United …

Born in 1918, Miroslav Standera flew against the Nazis with the French air force in 1940, and was seriously injured during a dogfight. After France’s fall, he joined the Royal Air Force and flew with No 312 Squadron during the Battle of Britain before moving on to twin-engine fighter-bombers making night-time raids over France and …

Col. Robert J. “Shorty” Rankin, a World War II fighter ace of the 56th Fighter Group, passed away on March 14, 2013 in his winter home in Florida, aged 94. He was credited with 10 confirmed, 1 probable victories and 2 damaged e/a, and was the first P-47 Thunderbolt to achieve “ace-in-a-day” status by destroying …

Kenneth Allen Jernstedt, who flew with the legendary Flying Tigers, died on February 5 aged 95. Born in 1917, Jernstedt flew with the US Marine Corps before joining the American Volunteer Group in 1941 to fight the Japanese in China. By the time he left the AVG in 1942, he was credited with three confirmed …

Roland de la Poype, a French ace of the Normandie-Niémen group, died aged 92 at Saint-Tropez in Southern France on 23 October. Roland Paulze d’Ivoy de la Poype, Compagnon de la Libération and Hero of the Soviet Union, was one of the first Frenchmen to rejoin General de Gaulle in June 1940. He volunteered to …